Does helmet safety match cost?

Does helmet safety match how much money you spend on the helmet? It’s an often-asked question that we try to verify with statistics.

The Bell helmets ad campaign of 50 years ago “If you’ve got a $10 head, wear a $10 helmet!” may have been true then, but is it now?

We could not find any empirical evidence of the correlation between cost and safety, only anecdotal. For example, I can attest that my Shoei Hornet DS saved my head after I was run over by another bike, but I wouldn’t know how a cheaper or more expensive helmet would have coped.

Since you often pay more for special graphics for the same helmet in a solid single colour, we can assume cost isn’t always related to safety.

So we have gone to statistics to see if they show any safety/cost correlation.

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7 Comments

I posted this on your Facebook page, but thought worth putting here as well:

This is interesting, a factor that now coming into the cheap/expensive argument are brands like Touratech and Klim, who use an OEM to manufacture their helmets.

The branded helmets are quite pricey $700-$800, where as you can buy Nexx (Touratech) and Nishua (Klim) helmets for for about $200-$300.

The suggestions by the people who have seen both side by side is they are very similar maybe with slightly different peaks and the branded helmet has a space for intercoms, where as the OEM one doesn’t. If the price premium worth it in these instances? Is the OEM as good as branded one?

Hi, as usual you have provide a informative article in an endeavor to improve the safety of motorcyclists. But do we really need the negative stereotypical lead picture. You are not writing for a certain Queensland newspaper anymore. Keep up the good work, but please keep the photos positive (Shock horror pictures have proved to be ineffective in modifying behaviour anyway)

The last helmet I purchased was evaluated by price, fit and lastly safety. I actually wanted to buy the cheapest helmet I could find but as it turned out (after trying on heaps of helmets) I found that fit became the most important factor, so that I ended up buying a Shoei NRX and it is only coincidence that it has a fairly high safety factor and it happened to be a mid range price, somewhere in the $700 region.

With the minimum standards all helmets must meet the only places price makes a difference is in fitment quality noise and weight.
The better fitting helmet is the safer helmet
The quietest helmet is the safer helmet
The lighter helmet is the safer helmet
To get all three usually means more money as the more expensive helmet should be using lighter more exotic materials and spend more on research and development and have more size and shape options.
But this is often not the case as you can have two helmets one from an elcheapo supplier and one from a name brand being identical in every way that counts the only difference being the name and often it’s because they are made in the same factory.

The trouble with buying off the Internet.
I bought an L2 brand helmet even with shipping it was half the price of the same helmet here. It’s a good helmet but it was a bit tight so I took the removable liner out to see if there was any adjustment and what did I find?
The helmet was supposed to be a xxxl it’s labeled as such every where except on the internals there I found xxl embossed on the parts no wonder it was a bit tight!

As always price does not always indicate quality and even with the UK Sharp ratings there are some glaring problems such as low percentages of chin bar lock retention on some high rated flip up helmets

The NSW Govt CRASH rating system should be discontinued now we have moved to UNECE 22.05, the money could be better spent on other things and the NSW Govt collaborate with the UK developing further a single worldwide rating system